The cover art to Witchblade #167 by John Tyler Christopher and Diego Bernard

Speaking MTV News, Top Cow Productions boss and Image Comics founder Marc Silvestri revealed that the long-mooted big screen adaptation of The Darkness will feature another fan-favourite Top Cow character.

“It just became more and more apparent as we were telling Jackie’s story about The Darkness and the dark and light and how much they’ve intertwined over the years in the comic books,” said Silvestri.

“Jackie has that mob connection which we explore in the movie because it’s an origin film. It makes sense to have a cop. And who do we know that’s a cop in the Top Cow universe? Sara Pezzini, wielder of the Witchblade.”

A classic Nineties antihero, The Darkness revolves around Jackie Estacado, a mob enforcer who inherits an ancient demonic power, and talk of a movie returned to the surface during the release of The Darkness II videogame. Witchblade, set in the same universe, has similarly been courted for adaptation, but has more successfully penetrated other media with a short-lived TNT TV series and an anime series.